CHU recently participated in the 10th Kaohsiung International Invention and Design Show organized and hosted by the World Invention Intellectual Property Associations (WIIPA) and Taiwan Invention and Design Promotion Association. The teacher-student teams won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze awards in the competition. Notably, all the participating teams this year were from non-design majors, which also demonstrated the excellent effectiveness of CHU's long-term promotion of innovation and creativity education.

Photo1 / The teacher-student team created the "double-headed filter mesh tipped spoon", which combines a soup spoon and a filter mesh, and won the gold award at the invention exhibition.

The promotion of innovation and creativity education has been effective. The teacher-student teams from CHU that participated in the Kaohsiung International Invention Award this year won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze awards with their works "Double-Headed Filter Mesh Tipped Spoon", "Improvement of Fragrant Wax Candle Wicks", and "Shiny Traffic Cones" respectively. Notably, all these students were from non-design majors, including the departments of computer science, industrial management, and financial management. Through diverse innovation and creativity courses offered by their departments, students identified problems from daily life and put their creativity into practice. Hui-Ching Chang, a computer science student responsible for the "Double-Headed Filter Mesh Tipped Spoon" invention, said they came up with the idea hoping to simplify the inconvenience of needing two tools to scoop soup and ingredients when enjoying hot pot. Therefore, they combined the functions of a double-headed tipped spoon and a strainer through brainstorming. The double-headed design also allows users to easily control the flow of soup, whether using left or right hand, and reduces the chance of splashing.

Photo2 / Students enthusiastically introduce their team project to foreign guests.

Jia-Xin Hsieh, a student from the Department of Industrial Management, designed "Improvement of Fragrant Wax Candle Wicks". Initially, considering that the burnt black parts on the fragrant candle wicks after repeated burning would produce harmful substances that endanger people's health, under the guidance of Associate Professor I-Hsien Lai, she designed a fragrant candle containing glass fiber wicks. It would automatically stop burning when reaching the glass fiber, reminding people to trim the wick. It could also slowly extinguish itself within a fixed burning time (about 1 to 1.5 hours), while solving the health hazards of fragranced candles.

Considering that setting up traffic cones for night construction often requires lighting to remind people to keep away, causing energy consumption and waste of materials, Pei-Hsuan Wu from the Department of Industrial Management and Tzu-Ling Pan from the Department of Finance, under the guidance of lecturer Yu-Ting Lin and assistant professor Ming-Hong Wu from the Department of Landscape Architecture, utilized recycled plastic waste and reprocessed glass sand to redesign "Shiny Traffic Cones". Using the reflective light source of glass sand, it provides lighting at night, not only saving energy and being eco-friendly, but also making the traffic cones more fashionable and enhancing urban aesthetics.

CHU is the first university in Taiwan to promote "Popular Education for Innovation and Creativity". Since 2009, CHU has integrated professional disciplines from all departments to offer compulsory and elective courses on innovation and creativity, allowing students from every department to inspire creative ideas and put creativity into practice. CHU holds creative podium competitions every year to encourage students to participate and accumulate experience. Over 4,000 people have participated since 2018. It also coaches students to take part in renowned international invention exhibitions and professional competitions in Europe, America, Japan and Korea. Since 2018, students have accumulated over 300 awards, affirming students' learning through external recognition for good learning outcomes!